What Else Is There?
by Laura Schiller
Summary: AU for the ending. Derek sees through the fake Odette at the ball - but can he get to the real one in time to save her?
1. Chapter 1

What Else Is There?

By Laura Schiller

Based on: _The Swan Princess_

Copyright: Richard Rich Animation

/

There was something different about Odette when she arrived at the ball.

She was much quieter. She danced correctly, but without her usual grace; she seemed uncomfortable in her skin somehow. She stared wide-eyed at her fellow guests in their finery, even though Queen Uberta had been throwing parties just as elaborate (well, almost) for years. All of this could have been explained by the swan curse, of course – anyone would feel out of touch with polite society after paddling around in feathers for a week – but Derek still felt uneasy, in a way he couldn't put his finger on.

As a hunter, he had learned to notice even insignificant details, and to trust his intuition. Right now, that intuition was telling him something was wrong.

Odette's behavior wasn't the only thing that was off, either. Bromley wasn't here. Derek felt guilty. Finding Odette again had overwhelmed him, but a prince shouldn't be so irresponsible as to lose track of his best friend in the forest. It was too soon to worry – it had been less than a day, after all. Brom might still turn up any moment, dirty and tired and bragging about the adventure he'd had … but Derek had never imagined himself getting engaged without his best friend there to congratulate him.

If he couldn't deal with one worry, though, at least he could deal with the one right in front of him. He kept a close eye on Odette as they waltzed around the room.

"Hey," he said, patting her black velvet sleeve, "Is that a new dress you're wearing?"

Odette never wore black. She wore white and pink and lavender and other flowery colors, appropriate for a young unmarried lady. Black was for older women. Derek had never been interested in women's clothing, but growing up with a fashion-obsessed mother, he couldn't help but pick up these things.

"Master gave it to me." Odette smiled vapidly and batted her eyelashes. "Isn't it pretty?"

The smile, as well as the words, gave him a chill down his spine. She looked and sounded all wrong.

"Wait, you're calling him Master now? And letting him _dress_ you?"

"But I – I have to," she stammered. "I have to do what he tells me."

Odette didn't take orders from anyone, including her late royal father. If she made up her mind not to go somewhere, it took physical force to move her. Even under the curse last night, she'd brought Derek to the lake at the risk of being shot with arrows. Though visibly terrified of the sorcerer holding her captive, she'd been equally determined to escape him and keep Derek safe from his wrath.

"What in heaven's name did that monster do to you?"

Odette startled, blushed, glanced wildly around as if she was afraid of someone listening, and hid her face against his shoulder, so suddenly that he almost fumbled his dance step. "Please, let's not talk about it," she whispered. "Don't worry. After tonight, everything will be perfect."

Her golden waves of hair brushed his nose, as soft and sweet as he remembered. For a moment, he felt like a fool for doubting her. She looked like Odette, smelled like Odette; she even had the pendant he'd given back to her last night. She'd been through a terrible ordeal; how could he blame her for acting strangely after that? Who else would she be?

But the shape-shifting creature he'd read about in the library wouldn't get out of his head. _It's not what it seems,_ William had told Derek with his dying breath. Could this be what the old king had meant? Could the Great Animal, or the sorcerer who controlled it, be disguised as Odette?

There had to be some way to test her.

The scenery of the ball around him – the dancing couples, the chamberlain scurrying self-importantly around the room, Rogers conducting the orchestra, Uberta staring at her son and his dance partner with avid curiosity – gave him an idea.

"Remember the last time we were at a party like this?" Derek murmured, doing his best impression of a man in love even though his stomach was twisted with nerves.

"Oh yes," said Odette, nodding eagerly.

"We were so happy that night, weren't we?"

"So happy," Odette sighed.  
"That was the night I asked you to marry me. And you didn't hesitate for a second, did you? You just said yes."

"I did," Odette cooed. "Anytime, my love, as soon as you say the word."

That was when Derek knew.

The real Odette would have known the truth about that night. The real Odette would have remembered how she'd hesitated, how she had asked Derek if her beauty was all that mattered to him, how Derek had – to his lifelong shame – answered: _What else is there? _The evening had ended in heartache and disappointment for everyone concerned.

Whoever this person in his arms might be, she wasn't his betrothed. He pulled her closer – and snatched the heart-shaped locket from around her neck.

"Guards, arrest this woman! She's an impostor!"

She let out a panicked shriek – that voice was definitely a stranger's – and bolted for the doors, but two of the armored Royal Guards who had been standing at the edges of the room advanced on her and caught her between them, each grabbing one of her arms.

She swayed and turned limp in what looked like a faint … but the hair that fell forward to hide her face was gray, not blonde, and between the two tall men, she suddenly shrank until her head was barely level with their chests.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Queen Uberta, all but shoving her way through the crowd. "Derek, who is she? What's she doing here?"

"I was about to ask the same thing," said Derek, tucking the necklace in his pocket for safekeeping and advancing on the impostor.

He was not the sort of person to threaten a tiny old woman, witch or no witch, but his face and voice were very stern as he leaned down to look her in the eye. She had green eyes, not violet, and her large nose and wrinkled face didn't bear the slightest resemblance to the woman she had been impersonating all night. It would have been impressive if it weren't so frightening.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Princess Odette?"

He expected fear, defiance, humility, more magic – anything but what she actually did, which was burst into shrill, mocking laughter.

"Me?!" she exclaimed. "You think I did this? Ooh, little prince, Master always said you were slow, but I never knew … oh, you pretty painted fools, what's coming for you is so much worse than poor old Bridget Broom!"

But there was fear in her eyes despite her sneering tone, as if her master, whoever he was, scared her more than even a hostile crowd like this.

But when she caught sight of one particular face, all the bravado drained out of her. Her eyes filled with tears and she reached out with skinny, age-spotted hands. "Cyril?"

"Bridget!" The Chamberlain's small, brightly dressed figure emerged from the crowd. He ran forward and squeezed Bridget's hands, ignoring the two guards on either side of her, ignoring every other person in the room. "I thought – How did – All these years - What in the world have you been doing?"

"He said he'd make me young and pretty," Bridget sobbed. "Like those princesses you're so crazy about … I just wanted to be good enough for you … "

"You were _always _good enough for me!"

"Chamberlain! Are you familiar with this … person?" said Uberta, with a sniff that spoke volumes of her disgust in learning that a trusted and valued servant of hers was familiar with a witch.

"We were engaged once," said Cyril, pivoting to stand between Bridget and her accusers. "But she was forced into exile along with Lord Rothbart when he tried to overthrow the late King William. They said she was a traitor too, but I never believed it. I searched for her … Please, Your Majesties - " He fell to his knees in front of Uberta and Derek. "Show mercy. Whatever she's done, aren't twenty years enslaved to a sorcerer punishment enough?"

At any other time, Derek would have thought they looked ridiculous together: an old crone in a gown meant for seduction and a chubby little man with a huge ruff and bright yellow doublet. They didn't even look close enough in age to be former sweethearts. Perhaps that was the difference between twenty years with Uberta and twenty years with Rothbart. There was nothing ridiculous, however, about the looks on their faces.

They loved each other. And the Chamberlain already knew what it had taken Derek a lifetime to learn: how to look beyond a woman's body and into her heart.

Derek had to tell Odette that she had always been good enough – more than good enough – for him.

But he had to find her first.

"Tell us where Odette is, Bridget," he said quietly. "And I promise you won't be punished."

Uberta frowned, but did not undermine her son's orders in public. She picked her chamberlain up off his knees and brushed some imaginary dust off him, in a manner that said _I'll forgive you this time for consorting with traitors and being part of a scandal at my ball, but don't let it happen again._

"She's locked in the dungeon in the ruins of Swan Lake Manor," said Bridget, hanging her gray head with a sigh of defeat. "So's that friend of yours. Shaking like jelly, he was. You shouldn't let him wander off alone."

"Bromley?" Derek demanded. "He's got Bromley too?"

So that was where his friend had disappeared to. Derek called himself ten kinds of idiot for not considering that sooner. They must have blundered right into Rothbart's territory on that hunting trip without knowing it. Brom in a sorcerer's dungeon – it didn't bear thinking about.

"Bromley is his name, yes." Bridget shuddered from head to foot. "Oh mercy, I've said too much … Master's going to kill me."

"Not if I can help it." Derek gestured to the guards who were still holding on to her. "Release her. Tell the stablemen to ready my horse. And, uh … could someone get me a spare bow and arrows? I seem to have lost mine."

He wasn't normally so careless with his prized weapons, but again, finding Odette had driven everything else out of his head. If he was going to face Rothbart, however, a sword wouldn't be enough.

The guards saluted, turned as one, and marched out. Bridget collapsed into a black velvet puddle on the floor. Cyril hurried to help her to her feet and lead her away, presumably somewhere quiet and protected.

"Derek!" Uberta clutched her son's sleeve as he turned away. "Did you say just one horse? My darling boy, you don't mean to say you're going to fight this villain alone?"

"I agree, sire," Rogers chimed in. "I thought I'd taught you better combat tactics than this."

Underneath his mother's drama and his tutor's criticism, they looked genuinely afraid. Derek brushed off Uberta's hand as gently as possible, kissed her on the forehead, and gave Rogers an affectionate clap on the back.

"This is my fight. I practiced, remember? If I'm not back by midnight, you can send the army after me … but let's face it, I'm very fast." He showed them the kind of smirk at which Odette, if she were here, would have been tempted to throw a tomato.

"I'll have the Great Animal's head as a trophy by the time they're halfway there."


	2. Chapter 2

One fast ride and several narrow escapes later, his sword shattered and his last arrow spent, Derek cursed his confounded arrogance in making such a claim. Next time a magical monster showed up, he decided, he'd bring as many soldiers as the castle could spare.

Rothbart's other form was huge. Bigger than the brown bears that sometimes stole livestock from the villages in the coldest winters. It was wickedly fast, had teeth that could crunch up a steel blade like it was made of straw, and – not to blame the late King William, who had been dying after all – but somehow he'd forgotten to mention that the Great Animal could fly_._

That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the other flying creatures that had joined the fight, interfering with Derek's aim because he was afraid to hit them – hence his last arrow spent.

One was a small black and white bird he could barely identify in the moonless night, let alone recognize as the puffin that had pecked him in the foot. The other was a swan. And since no ordinary birds would be this lacking in survival instinct, these had to be Odette and some ally of hers. Trust Odette to find allies anywhere, even in a ruined castle surrounded by wilderness. Trust Odette to go up against impossible odds in a fight for her freedom.

All those courtiers at the ball earlier this evening would have been shocked to see the elegant princess wielding beak and talon with such ferocity. Derek, who still had a scar from being knocked down the stairs when she was six and he was eight, was not in the least surprised.

But she was so much smaller than Rothbart, and had no magic to help her. And no matter how fast she was, how clever and how bold, his jaws were big enough to swallow her in one bite.

There – she'd torn another hole in of the creature's leathery wings. His flight was becoming erratic. It was slower now, easier to hit – if only Derek hadn't wasted his last arrow – but then those jaws opened and closed with a sickening _snap_, and this time, she wasn't quite fast enough.

White feathers scattered in the wind. A white blur came tumbling down toward the ground.

"_No!"_ Derek screamed, running to where he'd seen her fall.

There was so much he had to tell her. He'd failed her so badly at their engagement ball; he couldn't fail her again. It couldn't end this way.

"Derek!"

The last voice he'd expected cut through the fog of his terror. It gave him the shock of a lifetime to see his best friend emerge dripping wet from the lake, still carrying a quiver of arrows from their hunting trip, clutching a bow and looking absolutely terrified.

"Derek, Catch-and-Fire!"

Derek understood at once.

Brom nocked an arrow, aimed – Derek could see him shaking, his lips moving in prayer, and knew for the first time what courage truly meant – and fired. Derek snatched the arrow out of the air. It burned his palm, but he barely felt it.

The Rothbart-creature, diving for Derek with outstretched claws, its mouth open in a shriek of rage, was the easiest target he ever shot.

It fell into the lake in an explosion of magical fire, and was gone.

Derek didn't have time to consider that he had just killed a man, however evil, and what that might mean. It would catch up to him later, but all he felt was a dull relief that the fight was over.

Now he could focus on the only thing that mattered in his universe right now.

"Derek, thank goodness! Are you hurt?" asked Brom, running up to him and catching him by the shoulders.

"I'm fine. You?"

"Fine. I mean, it was soaking wet in that tower and I'll probably catch the mother of all colds, but - "

"C'mon," Derek interrupted. "We have to find Odette."

They found her by the light of magic streaming away from her motionless figure. The white swan lying on the soft ground by the lake was suddenly a woman, her golden hair scattered on the grass, her white dress streaked with mud and blood.

Small animals were emerging from the reeds to gather around her: a turtle and a frog. The turtle carried something on its shell: the black and white bird who had been fighting alongside Odette earlier, and who must have been knocked out in the battle.

Derek fell to his knees. "Odette!"

"These guys saved us," Brom murmured, looking from Odette to the animals in quiet awe. "Must be something in the water. They brought me this bow … and that swan who pulled me out of the tower, that was _her_!"

Derek felt her pulse. It still beat, but her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving.

"Please say something," he said, holding her hand, hot tears falling from his eyes onto her pale skin. "Open your eyes … anything … just don't leave me. I never told you how much I love you … that smirk on your face when you beat me at cards, your wicked aim with a slingshot, the way you never gave up on me no matter how dumb I was … I love everything about you, always have … always will."

Her fingers twitched. She stirred.

It was the single happiest moment of his life so far.

"Derek?" she whispered, violet eyes slowly blinking open to focus on his face. "Took you … long enough … but I love you too."

On her face was the shadow of that same smile that had made his heart beat faster since they were teenagers: the smile of a woman who knew she had won. He knew beyond a doubt that she wasn't a shape-shifter this time.

"I'm here, Odette," he said, still crying and smiling unashamedly at the same time. "Rothbart's gone. We're alive. Are you … ?" He ran his hands over her to check her for injuries.

"My wing … I mean, my arm … it's broken."

"Reinforcements are on their way." Derek slowly helped her to sit up. "We'll get you to a doctor. Everything's gonna be okay."

"And the others?" Odette glanced around and spotted the animals, who were keeping a wary distance from the two human men, but whose attention never wavered from her. She gasped when she saw the bird lying across the turtle's shell. "Puffin!"

The bird raised its head and let out a faint squawk. Derek could have sworn that there was a note of triumph in it. The frog that was sitting next to the turtle hopped up and down, croaking at the top of its voice. Even the turtle raised its wrinkled head and made a quiet snuffling sound.

"Your friend can come with us," said Brom eagerly. "We'll have the falconer take a look at him. It's the least we can do."

"Thank you," said Odette, looking from one friend to another, her eyes shining. "Everyone … you saved me."

And then Brom, who had spent his whole life following Derek's example by insulting Odette in petty ways – slinging tomatoes at her, telling her no girls were allowed in the treehouse, trying to help Derek cheat at cards and failing – bowed his head in respect to his future Queen.

"Only because you saved us too," he said.

/

It was a strange but contented group that the team of soldiers (dispatched long before midnight by an anxious Queen Uberta) discovered when they came riding up to the lake. The surgeon who accompanied them snapped into action at once when he saw the bloodstained, exhausted young couple: Odette's arm was bound up immediately, the surgeon gave her a drink out of his leather flask, and several men helped to lift her onto Derek's horse so she could ride along with him.

The horses set off at their slowest walking pace, led by Derek, who was determined to give his injured warrior the smoothest ride possible. The turtle rode in Odette's lap, its head and all four legs withdrawn into its shell, with the puffin sleeping on top. The frog hopped from one perch to another – Derek's shoulder, the top of Odette's head – before settling down between the horse's ears, looking ridiculously smug, as if it believed the entire group was a victory parade in its own honor.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen," said Odette demurely, sitting in the circle of Derek's arm. "I'm afraid we didn't leave you any of the glory."

"That's just as well, ma'am," said the Captain, grinning as he rode next to them. "Glory's overrated, as long as you're safe and sound."

"Still flirting with the guards, are you?" Derek murmured into her ear.

"By the way, speaking of flirting," she retorted, "Who was that woman in black I saw you dancing with tonight? I was _this_ close to smashing the window and pecking her eyes out, but I decided Rothbart came first."

Derek was absurdly gratified to find out he could make her jealous, even though he never planned on doing so again. "C'mon, it was just Bridget. She's not a bad old stick, really. Just misguided."

"Rothbart's Bridget?" Odette sniffed disdainfully, but then sighed. "Oh, I suppose you're right. I'd have gone very hungry as a swan if not for those bread crumbs she used to feed me."

A princess, grateful for bread crumbs. Derek privately resolved to bring her the freshest, warmest loaf from the castle kitchens for breakfast at their earliest convenience.

"Wait," said Odette suddenly, craning her neck to glance back at him with a searching frown. "You knew? But she looked just like me!"

"What?" He drew himself up in mock offense. "You think your beauty's all that matters to me? I'm shocked, Odette. _Shocked._"

"I'm sorry," she murmured, nestling even closer into his arms. "You're right … I should've trusted you."

"I'm only joking," he hurried to say. "But of course I knew. I've known you all my life."

"And will you stay with me?" she asked softly. "Can we stay together for the rest of our lives?"

Letting go of the reins for a moment, he pulled the heart locket with its engraved swan out of his pocket and fastened it around her neck, where it belonged. Whatever had inspired Rothbart to turn her into a swan, it suited her. Swans were the heraldic bird of Uberta's kingdom for many reasons, the least of which was their beauty. They were fierce, they were dignified, and they mated for life.

"Much longer than that," said Derek. "Much longer."


End file.
